A Mile of Wine Tasting

So yesterday, we walked down to the craft show down on Whitehead St. Before we got there, we passed this friendly cat who was sitting on top of a sign that said not to feed him. Because he ate chicken poop (??!!).


We also passed this quirky art in someone's yard. I love stuff like that.




Yes! This is the kind of street fair Michael & I miss! We've been disappointed with the last couple of smaller ones here, but this was more like what we remembered in Arizona. Of course, many of the artists that we gravitated to at this one turned out to be from Arizona, Colorado, Texas, and New Mexico - which is exactly the same artists that came to the Arizona art festivals - so apparently our tastes haven't changed.

Next up was the Duval Uncorked, where about 39 businesses along the mile-long Duval St. offered up beverages, snacks, and maybe a product or two, depending on the type of business. We heard 700 to 800 tickets were sold to this event, so expected longer lines at each place, but I think we were starting at the opposite end of Duval than most of the others. The event was supposed to take place from 3:30 to 7:30pm. We started around 4:30. It took us a bit to find the sign-in table because it wasn't quite where it was supposed to be, but before we knew it, we had these cute little wine glasses hanging from our necks, our trusty list of all the participants, and a bright pink bracelet letting everyone know we were trick-or-treating for booze and gourmet food.

Aaah, Apartment Living

I've truly forgotten how much fun apartment living is. Makes me long for the days when all we had to worry about when we slept on our boat was the anchor dragging, sending us onto the rocks; or getting hit by lightning and getting sent to the bottom of the sea. We now live in a house that's been divided into four, using nice, flimsy walls as separators. We've been pretty lucky that the person we share the upstairs with is somewhat quiet - most of the time. Fridays are party nights though. She and her friends clomp up the stairs, located right next to our open window, anytime between midnight and 2am, and then have a good ol' time until they all pass out or clomp back down the stairs, giggling. Reminds me of my dorm days. Michael & I have an occasional night out, but we're usually back by 9pm and out by 10pm (unlike my dorm days).

I'm pretty sure that's what they look like.

(BTW, if you email subscribers are not seeing the images, go to the blog - it's more fun that way.
Today, I needed animation.)

Last night's fun (or early this morning's) involved the lone neighbor. She fell up the stairs, sounding like she might have hurt herself after missing a step, bounced around in the hallway for a bit, fell into her apartment, and then immediately passed out. Snoring. Really loud. Incredibly, Michael didn't hear the initial ruckus, but eventually the guttural breathing, sounding a lot like a scavenging wart hog, woke him from his slumber. He actually got up, walked around the apartment, and checked the outer stairs for good measure. Because that's how loud it was. It sounded like someone (or something) had gotten into our apartment and had, or was still having, a little too much fun.

Honey is that you?

The Night(s) After

So what do you do when the pressure of public speaking (in Toronto) and the physical stress of running 13.1 miles is behind you? Party! One of the things on Tina & Ron's to-do list was to watch the sunset, so we headed for Sunset Pier. Ok, here we are. Hey - where's the sun? I think it's around this thing...

Yep. We've got a good spot. Beer? Check. Sun? Check.

Second and Last Half Marathon

This was the day before. You know, the fun part when you're getting all kinds of "free" stuff (I won't mention what I paid to run in this thing).

The next day it was time to get our run on. My main goals were to beat 2011's time of 2:10:35, and to get out of the middle of the pack. I am always in the middle in any race. I can not be more literal about this than when in Barbados out of the 202 runners who finished, I was 101. I also secretly hoped that I'd get in under 2 hours on this one, but considering I didn't really train, that was unlikely (and - spoiler alert - didn't happen). I was relieved about two things - the humidity was finally down (comparatively speaking) and winds were light - no headwinds.

Fun with Statues

Ok, this wasn't at the Custom's House but still funny.

A couple of weeks ago when I posted some people having fun with statues, I hadn't quite thought that it was just a matter of time before I'd be posting my very own. Our pals Tina and Ron are in town to abuse themselves in the Half marathon tomorrow (Sunday), and on the way to see if there was going to be an interesting sunset (there wasn't), we passed the Custom's House and its huge statues and couldn't help ourselves.

This, of course, led to us having to pose everywhere there was an opportunity, and we're still laughing at the photos this morning. I'm going to save the best for last so keep going.





We really are geeks.

And I'm back

So after that last post, I lost my gloves, had to deal with a snarky gate attendant at the Toronto airport, missed the tiny sign pointing me to Newark's terminal bus again (with a bunch of other confused travelers), got all excited when we flew close enough to the Statue of Liberty for me to wave, and then sat in Tampa for an extra hour and a half when the crew that was supposed to be flying with us "timed out" and we had to wait for a fresh crew. When the plane got into Key West after 10pm, the airport had to scramble for staff because they normally weren't open that late. Let's see, my first flight left the ground at 10:50am and we pulled up to our apartment at 10:50pm. I was traveling for 12 hours - shouldn't I be in Tahiti or something? At least it's warmer here - warmer than when I left too.

A side note...I'm curious. Has anyone ever been on a plane when someone farted? I'd never thought about it until someone did pass some serious gas on the final flight. It was rather eye opening (or watering) and while I was wishing the oxygen masks would drop, it occurred to me that after all my years of flying, and I've flown a lot, I have never had to contend with someone farting. I think that's pretty amazing when you think about it. It must happen though, because when I searched for "farting on a plane image" several came up.

The cats went crazy when I came through the door, running around like they'd taken a hit of catnip, and showing off like little kids do when new people visit. When the show was over, Jack became stuck to me like glue, but Zura had to shun me as punishment. She finally came around this morning and wanted some cuddle time, but I'm still having a hard time dislodging Jack from my side. Michael's feelings are hurt, they're not quite as enthusiastic with him (even when he was all they had), but cats are like that. I was more than happy to snuggle with him, so all is well.

Next up? Running 13.1 miles on Sunday. This is another event I have mixed feelings about, but I am looking forward to having our pals Tina and Ron sleep over.   This is going to be like putting dozens of clowns in a Volkswagen Beetle, but we're all boaters so know how to live and entertain in tight quarters. Michael was having knee problems, so his job is to man the beer cooler and take pictures as we all cross the finish line. I'm hoping to beat my time from the last one I did in Barbados (although, like the last time, I haven't really trained for it) and then would like to just stick to 10Ks in the future. Ready, set, go!

There I did it!

I did Ok

When I walked into the expo the third time, Monday, things were so quiet I secretly hoped that no one would come to my final presentation. No such luck. I might have even had a few more people than the day before. That's ok though because I had added to my presentation, practiced some more, and thought I would really wow them. Then I got done more than 10 minutes early - AGAIN - and had a very nice woman who gives presentations all the time tell me afterwards that it was great, enthusiastic, and very informative but.....say it with me people...I talk too fast.

Remember this guy? I think we're related.

Nooooo!!  Do you know how often I said to myself "slow"? I really thought I had this one (it didn't help that I was cold - 3 layers on and then put my winter coat back on - in the conference room). I will say that this group was much friendlier than Sunday's and I had fun talking to everyone afterwards (and hugged all the ones that bought books - including my cheerful critic), but still. Ok, so I've learned that I'm not great at radio interviews or presentations - not sure if it's just because they're about me or if I'm not great at them in general.